A moment with 'Ding'

August 20, 2019

"Look out here come the nature lovers" is the tongue-in-cheek title to this cartoon, published by Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling on April 7, 1929. "The first little wildflower" cries for help as the shovel-wielding masses storm. Very much a nature-lover himself, Darling was not blind to the damage nature can suffer at the hands of those who want to possess it rather than preserve it. One of a body of 15,000 cartoons that won Darling two Pulitzer Prizes and made him the most talked-about newspaper contributor of his time, it demonstrates the wit and passion that went into his work. That same passion created the Sanibel National Wildlife Refuge in 1945, renamed for Darling after his death. In 2019 and 2020, the refuge celebrates its 75th anniversary.